Treaties

Some treaties or conventions in force confer jurisdiction on the Court. It has become a general international practice to include international agreements - both bilateral and multilateral - provisions, known as jurisdictional clauses, providing that disputes of a given class shall or may be submitted to one or more methods for the pacific settlement of disputes. Numerous clauses of this kind provide for recourse to conciliation, mediation or arbitration too; others provide for recourse to the Court, either immediately or after the failure of other means of pacific settlement.

Accordingly, the States signatory to such agreements may, if a dispute of the kind envisaged in the jurisdictional clause of the treaty arises between them, either institute proceedings against the other party or parties by filing a unilateral application, or conclude a special agreement with such party or parties providing for the issues to be referred to the Court. The wording of such jurisdictional clauses varies from one treaty to another.

Below is a chronological list of treaties and other instruments notified to the Registry following registration, classification or recording at the Secretariat of the United Nations which contain clauses relating to the jurisdiction of the Court in contentious proceedings. Such clauses generally provide that disputes concerning the application or interpretation of the instrument may be referred to the Court for decision. For each instrument, the table mentions the date and place of signature, the title of the instrument, the relevant clause and the contracting parties, and also, as far as available, the number under which it has been registered or filed and recorded by the Secretariat and the volume in the United Nations Treaty Series in which it has been or will be published.

Where instruments prior to 1946 are mentioned they are instruments relating to the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice which have been filed and recorded by the Secretariat of the United Nations and appear in the Treaty Series of the United Nations.

The fact that a treaty is or is not included in this section is without prejudice to its possible application by the Court in a particular case.

Year

Date

Place

Title and Clause

Contracting Parties

1933

12 May

Ottawa

Convention concerning the rights of nationals and commercial and shipping matters (Art. 20)

Protocol against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, supplementing the United Nations convention against transnational organized crime (Art. 16, para. 2)

Multilateral

2002

09-sept

The Hague

Agreement on the privileges and immunities of the International Criminal Court (Art. 32, par. 3)

Multilateral

2003

21-mai

Kiev

Protocol on civil liability and compensation for damage caused by the transboundary effects of industrial accidents on transboundary waters to the 1992 convention on the protection and use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes and to the 1992 convention on the transboundary effects of industrial accidents (Art. 26)

Multilateral

21-mai

Kiev

Protocol on pollutant release and transfer registers to the convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters (Art. 23)

Multilateral

31-oct

Merida

United Nations convention against corruption (Art. 66, par. 2)

Multilateral

1. All entries recorded throughout this Section in respect of China refer to actions taken by the authorities representing China in the United Nations at the time of those actions, and are to be understood in the light of General Assembly resolution 2758 (XXVI) of 25 October 1971.

2. The date and place given here are those of the signature of the amending protocol.

3. The dates and the places given here are those at which the amending protocol was opened for signature.

4. The date and the place given here are those of the signature of the protocol modifying and completing the Treaty, by which Article VIII of the Treaty became Article X.

5. The date and place given here are those of the signature of the revised Convention.